How to mine Ethereum?

How to mine Ethereum?

Ethereum (ETH) is currently the #2 cryptocurrency and provides the best returns for the money invested into mining hardware. Here is the easiest way to get started with mining Ethereum. This tutorial follows the procedure to mine using Claymore miner with Nanopool pool mining (more on that later below).

Let’s get started with Ethereum mining.

1. Setup an Ethereum wallet

MyEtherWallet is a free service that provides online Ethereum wallets. Just head over to myetherwallet.com and create a new wallet. The sign up process is straight forward. Just provide a password and your wallet will be created. Store the wallet address, password and private key safely. There is no way to recover the wallet if you lose the private key or password details.

2. Download and extract Claymore Miner

Claymore is one of the popular and versatile miners available. Download Claymore from this link. Extract Claymore into a folder on your computer.

3. Configure Claymore Miner

Open the extracted Claymore folder. Locate start_only_eth.bat and edit the file with a text editor.

You have to edit the following line and update it with your Wallet address and provide a name for your mining equipment. If you have multiple PCs mining Ethereum, give a different name for each miner so that you can track the values from each. Email is optional.

4. Run the Miner

Run the start_only_eth.bat by double clicking on it. It will start mining after a few seconds and show the status of mining as below.

Claymore Miner in action, mining on a 3GPU mining rig.

In our example, as we are mining with Nanopool, the mined Ether would be sent to your wallet address whenever the mined value reach 0.2 ETH. You can check your account on Nanopool by visiting eth.nanopool.org and input your Ethereum Wallet address on the search box on the top of the page.

Note: Mining ethereum with newly bought hardware may not provide the return on investment, atleast with the current price of Ethereum. Mining would be ideal for anyone with access to cheap electricity, cheap hardware or existing hardware.

PS: Do comment for any questions or clarifications about Ethereum mining.